Posts Tagged 'desktop'

It’s (same)time for High Definition

Published February 22, 2009 Uncategorized Closed
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IBM and Radvision has a long-lasting partnership in the IM space, with IBM’s Lotus Sametime and Radvision’s Scopia Desktop solution. In Lotusphere 2009 a month ago, Radvision introduced a new plug-in for Lotus Sametime, which adds high definition video conferencing to Sametime environment. The following post was written by guest blogger Sagee Ben Zedeff from Radvision.

I am a big fan of desktop video conferencing, and of RADVISION’s High Definition Scopia Desktop in particular. The ability to communicate with others directly from my laptop wherever I am in High Definition (REAL High Definition @ 720p) is priceless. Add to this the fact that it supports desktop, room system and mobile handset endpoints, and you can truly video conference from anywhere with anyone.

And now Lotus Sametime users can enhance their collaboration and communication experience using Scopia Desktop in Lotusphere 2009. Among the recent exciting announcements, RADVISION unveiled a unique plug-in for Sametime, based on Scopia Desktop, which seamlessly adds high definition video conferencing to Sametime’s environment.

RADVISION’s conferencing platform, SCOPIA, has been supporting IBM’s unified communication and collaboration platform for a long time now. However, using the new Sametime plug-in, Sametime users can now enjoy multi-point HD video conferencing in their IM or web conferencing sessions easily and seamlessly.

The plug-in is simple and fully integrated into Sametime, centrally managed and deployed without any complex installation issues or licensing fees. You just click on the video icon in Lotus Sametime or Web Conferencing and you are ready to go.

In fact, Sametime users don’t need to change anything in their hardware or software. They can still use the same PC and webcam, yet enjoy the new HD services. The plug-in uses PC resources (processor power, network bandwidth) efficiently, allowing for H.264 video with highest quality, sending and receiving HD @ 720p resolution. It will even automatically detect CPU and bandwidth availability, and determine optimal parameters to guarantee the best experience for your setup.

If this sounds too good to be true, you can actually give Scopia Desktop a (free) test right now and see for yourself.


High definition video conferencing is happening everywhere, now is the time to start enjoying it on Sametime.



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Sagee Ben-Zedeff is a technology researcher in the CTO’s office at RADVISION. He has been developing video technologies and video related products for the past decade. He also writes the Video Over Enterprise blog, which deals with video and video applications “with an enterprise slant”.

CRN: The 10 Coolest Open Source Products of 2008

Published December 26, 2008 Uncategorized Closed
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CRN are continuing with their ‘Top 10‘ series to wrap up 2008 with this list of ‘The 10 Coolest Open Source Products of 2008‘. This time the focus is at the open source community, that has much more to offer than (just) Linux OS. Open source products will grow bigger in market share in 2009, as companies and individuals alike are looking for ways to cut down costs. Obviously, IBM’s own Lotus Symphony, which is based on OpenOffice.org, is included in this list, coming in at #3, just after Linux OS and OpenOffice 3.0. Here’s what CRN had to say about Symphony:

IBM has taken great pains to position itself as more of a middleware company than a desktop productivity software company, but diverged from that path a bit in 2008. By launching and upgrading its IBM Lotus Symphony suite of productivity apps based on OpenOffice.org, IBM is once again using the Lotus brand to take aim against Microsoft on the desktop.

Link:
CRN – The 10 Coolest Open Source Products of 2008

IBM offers a ‘Microsoft-free’ desktop

Published December 7, 2008 Uncategorized Closed
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Slightly delayed (had a busy Wed-Thu last week), but here’s another article covering IBM’s initiative to offer Linux-based software package, that runs on a back-end server and is accessible to customers on thin clients, pricing $59-$289 (depending on level of software and service).

Customers would also save on labor costs, because moving to a server-side system would cut maintenance needs, said Inna Kuznetsova, director of Linux strategy at IBM. The server-based setup could also reduce hardware costs by extending the life spans of desktop PCs.

Link: ComputerWorld – IBM, Canonical release ‘Microsoft-free’ virtual Linux desktop bundle

Microsoft Israel CFO: IM can save you money

Published December 1, 2008 Uncategorized Closed
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Everyone knows instant messaging and unified communication solutions can save you money, but I find the above statement a bit ironic, considering Microsoft’s pricing model. Only yesterday I spoke at a small gathering of hi-tech and SMB executives about collaboration at a start-up company – how you can save money by opting IBM over Microsoft. My post ‘Now’s the time to deploy IM‘ is also a great reference on this issue. Today Microsoft Israel CFO told a larger gathering of SMB executives that UC is the 2nd IT solution (out of 3) that can help mitigate the current economic crisis and decrease expenses.

First off I’m glad to hear Microsoft is doing what it can to help local businesses. These are tough times, and any executive needs to have some action plan in place to navigate the coming 3-9 months. Nevertheless, I hope customers, when evaluating IT spending, are looking more closely at the numbers, rather than the product logo. Here’s a slide that will help:

Lotus have an excellent, open standards, desktop solution that features:
messaging, basic collaboration and document mgmt., instant messaging, office productivity editors, mobile access, application development, SQL and SAP integration, Eclipse based and Domino server – for $201-$338 for user, depending on your OS.

If it’s only IM you want, Lotus Sametime can run on both Lotus Notes and or Microsoft Outlook, starting at $21 for user. More information about IBM’s award winning IM solution can be found here.

So, how much are you paying for your desktop?

PC.co.il – Microsoft CFO: Leasing can save up to 30%; recession is the best time to invest in IT (Hebrew)
Image: Microsoft vs. Lotus – Desktop components



Mobile & Media Consultant. I help startup companies launch products to the consumer market. Reach out: dvir.reznik [at] gmail.com
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This is my personal blog. The postings here do not represent the thoughts, intentions, plans or strategies of my past employers or of my clients. It is solely my opinion.